She needs to engage a good real estate lawyer who litigates or partners with a litigator and file a suit to quiet title - if its forged, perhaps the notary will confess, perhaps her ex or the notary will not perjure himself in court (and if they do they really further expose themselves), otherwise she,ll need. Handwriting expert to testify. But getting a good lawyer is the critical first step - and reality is good lawyers don't come cheap - she probably needs to be prepared to advance $10,000 to $20,000 and hope it ends sooner. My guess is that when faced with the risk of possibly perjuring themselves, her ex or the notary will rollover quickly. And she can sue for recovery of her costs too. But she needs to be prepared to advance the money first to get anything done.
I have a friend who's ex fiance bought her a condo. He never lived in the condo, he has his own place.
Fast forward some time and they break...he forged a QCD from her to himself.
She filed police reports but they have done nothing. She hired a lawyer and now her ex is trying to evict her.
She didn't have much money so she found a cheap lawyer and she feels like he isn't doing anything. It's been 4 months.
Can someone get away with this
In on the fraud and can remember that your friend was not actually the person who signed the deed.
He had his friend notarize it for hi
that the notary must keep a journal, and in the journal the notary has to save a thumbprint for anyone signing a deed or quitclaim deed. I just happened to find the California handbook. Maybe there is something similar for where your friend is located. If that rule applied, then it sounds like the friend's lawyer could challenge the crooked notary to produce his journal with your friend's real thumbprint.
I was suprised the police weren't really making efforts to do anything. I advised her to go in and complain, call internal affairs and even the media.
a he-said-she-said forged signature. Hardly an interesting news story, unless of course it turns out that the "fiance" was really a sugar baby. Your friend has to get a competent lawyer who can try to assemble useful information to go to court.
Do you have any realistic suggestions? Perhaps you know some "competent" lawyers who work for little or nothing.
(Hint: when one has little money, about the only avenues left are to try are contacting government authorities and trying to interest news media in the story.)
Your posts in this thread strongly suggest that at most you are a pre-law student. If you passed a bar examination, things have gone downhill.
Signed,
Wondering If You Live in Foggy Bottom....
maybe it's Foggy To
(1) I already suggested that the lady find out what rules apply in her state for notarizing a deed. If the lady owns a computer and can spell, she ought to be able to research her state without spending money, then ask her allegedly useless lawyer about this. If the rules are like the California rules that I posted for her to look at, it sounds like the notary would have to have a thumb print on file for the lady. If she had not signed the deed, then he has no thumb print and she apparently would have any easy case. Get it?
(2) Expecting the police to sort out your disputes over real estate is unrealistic. If you don't have enough evidence even to bring a lawsuit over the deed, how do you expect the police to arrest someone?
(3) Expecting the news media to investigate and solve your dispute also is unrealistic, unless there is reader interest and some meat to the story. So far there is a dispute over who signed a deed. That's not exactly a cliff hanging whodunnit. On the other hand, if the "fiancee" turns out to be a "sugarbaby" maybe this could headline in the National Enquirer and the lady could sell her story and make a few bucks
What is your friend's lawyer doing exactly? Fixing the title issue, or is he only going to be defending her in an eviction? It seems that the big variable here is what your friend actually instructed the lawyer to do, and whether or not he is even doing it.
As for your question about if someone can get away with a forged QCD... that depends... on whether you let them get away with it.
By the way, two people can be held responsible for this. The guy who recorded the forged document can be charged with a felony (FL S. § 831.01). The 2nd person who can be held responsible would be the notary, who should have a surety bond for $7500 by the way. This bond protects the public against financial losses due to improper conduct by a Florida Notary.
Well after detectives let him know they are sure he forged the document and that is not only forgery but grand theft he signed the home back over.
IF the guy gave her the condo free & clear & the title is in her name... then the signatures should match. I'm in another state by here a notory must check & record ID of unknown persons. He could have had another woman pretend to be her if the notory doesn't know her... but he should have checked the ID.
Her cheap lawyer needs to get off his arse. Or she needs to fire him.
the police have "done nothing" (in 4 months?) and her attorney seems to be doing nothing, were I in that situation, I would:
tell my attorney I am going to the local news media and type up a press release (it must be well-written and logical) and send it out to local newspapers, tv and radio stations, and online media.
A call to the local bar association and the state's office that reviews lawyer conduct would also be in order
She needs to engage a good real estate lawyer who litigates or partners with a litigator and file a suit to quiet title - if its forged, perhaps the notary will confess, perhaps her ex or the notary will not perjure himself in court (and if they do they really further expose themselves), otherwise she,ll need. Handwriting expert to testify. But getting a good lawyer is the critical first step - and reality is good lawyers don't come cheap - she probably needs to be prepared to advance $10,000 to $20,000 and hope it ends sooner. My guess is that when faced with the risk of possibly perjuring themselves, her ex or the notary will rollover quickly. And she can sue for recovery of her costs too. But she needs to be prepared to advance the money first to get anything done.
answer some potentially intrusive questions about how she acquired the property in the first place. Or, at least discuss that possibility, and how it can be handled, with her new GOOD lawyer.
This Life Lesson comes from Life Experience; your posts demonstrate that you have had little:
#103: When one (the "wrongee") has been told they are wrong, often the best course is to say nothing more and move on. The wrongee's attempt to further elaborate often leads to more evidence that he is wrong.
Suggestion: read the Washington Post, Roll Call, and The Hill for frequent examples of this Lesson.
I'm not a lawyer or a law student but I can think my way out of a paper bag and I offered a damn good start for legally challenging the deed (notary? thumbprint? other notary rules?). On the other hand, you have signaled that you're a lawyer (ain't that right, dig?) and the only advice you offered was 'go to the media', one of the most useless and over-done suggestions offered in web chats.
those with NO legal experience and little Life Experience posting poor (and sometimes bad) advice here on the Legal Corner. Some with no legal experience have enough Life Experience to post beneficial (but not legal) responses. mrfisher, who has the Life Experience to have given good advice, regularly reminds the community that he is "still not a lawyer".
You, on the other hand, have made it clear only by having to read your posts that you have little Life Experience and no legal experience.
Hell, you even admitted on another board here that "I am not a gentleman". It took my reading BOTH of your two reviews to ascertain if that statement meant you are female or if you were trying to be an amateur comic. (Some of your posts would have been more understandable if you were female.)
Your most recent post here indicates your lack of judgment and immaturity. Modern science would suggest that you are under age 25, when the human brain has yet to become fully developed.
Please come back to this board when you are a little older or have tried learning about the law. (If you live in the District try visiting the law library at the LOC or one of the several law schools located there. Books by Polo Press are helpful.
what exactly was the "poor / bad legal advice" in suggesting that the deed and the notary could be challenged based on rules such thumb prints or whatever the rules are in the lady's state? And why don't you have a single better legal suggestion? (right, dig?)
Class is dismissed.
(Boy, am I glad that I do not have to phone his parents to come in for a conference.)
The livid I suspect that I understand. Still peeved that a few of us shot down your racist rant a while back?
The irrational is a riot. For starters, you cannot articulate a single reason why my notary/thumb-print suggestion was "poor" "bad" "incompetent" legal advice, even though in your dreams you are a hot shit DC Lawyer. Hey, the least you could have done is volunteer to use your considerable legal education to research whether that might work under the laws of Florida or whatever state the OP's friend lives in. But the funniest is how you've concluded that I'm a very young guy, and not realizing the contradiction in that you quoted one of my jokes that I made on the "60 and Over" board. Well, I guess you lawyer guys can get cross-eyed after feverishly searching all the TER boards for clues about your latest crush.
(right, dig?)
opinion about this, although that has not stopped our legal cowboys from giving opinions anyway. LOL
“I have a friend who's ex fiancé bought her a condo. He never lived in the condo, he has his own place.
Fast forward some time and they break...he forged a QCD from her to himself.”
The ex-fiancé “bought her a condo?” That tells us NOTHING about whether she has any right to possession, or ownership here. Whose name is on the contract and deed? That is question one. If the guy’s name is on the contract and deed, as I suspect, and if she has no lease agreement, as I also suspect, she has no right to stay there if he wants her out. A condo is real property and her pillow talk claim that “he said he was giving it to me” isn’t going to get her very far.
The guy does not even need a quitclaim deed in most pillow talk situations. Unless the utility bills are in her name and/or other evidence of right to possession are available, he can have her ejected as an “unlawful transient” by simply filing an affidavit with LE and requesting ejection rather than going thru the time consuming and expensive residential eviction process.
“he forged a QCD from her to himself.” A “friend notarized the deed.”
A forged QCD is the least of her problems. And unless the notary is willing to risk his commission, commit fraud, and be liable to your friend, he is not going to do that. I don’t believe that for a minute but no you don’t “alert the media” or “call the police” at this point – you look at the stamp. The notary has to state either that he knows her personally and that she appeared before him, or that she produced an ID with a serial number.
So if eviction proceedings –as opposed to kick out the transient - are filed in court, she can easily defeat the “forged” quitclaim deed by simply filing an affidavit contesting the stamp. The court and lawyers will take it from there. It actually is very hard to evict someone unless they are a transient.
And let’s give Dani987x a little credit here – he gave the “best answer” on the thread by intuitively realizing that you deal with the QCD by contesting the notarized signature. These things are never conclusive so forgery create more problems than it solves- but what you really need to do is get all the facts before you ask for legal assistance